


New Years Eve in the quiet bar

by JaceRMontague



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, F/F, Fluff, Kinda, New Year's Eve, but not sickly sweet, idk - Freeform, its a little sweet, regina is a bartender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 20:02:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9140125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaceRMontague/pseuds/JaceRMontague
Summary: Emma hates New Year's Eve because of her belief that nothing will change apart from the date. She'll still be tired, lonely and sad when the clock strikes midnight.  She drags herself to the bar a block over, partly because it's close and quiet but mostly because of the gorgeous bartender. Maybe this year, when the clocks strike twelve. Maybe she'll still be tired, but she won't be sad and lonely anymore.





	

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY NEW YEARS!
> 
> May this year be good and happy and productive and we all stop procrastinating and let 2017 be considerably better than 2016.

Pulling the blankets closer, and burying her head further into the pillows, Emma yawned. It was barely after 7 in the evening on New Year’s Eve but she was tired, and lonely, and sad. She’d decided she was going to nap and then maybe head down to the bar on the next block over with the cute bar tender. That or she’d sleep the rest of the night. She really didn’t care all that much for New Years. Nothing amazing would happen when the clock struck twelve, just the same old shit as normal. The date would change and she’d still be tired, and lonely, and sad. 

 

And so, she pulled the blankets tighter and pushed further into the pillows and quickly drifted into a sleep. It was by no means the best sleep she'd ever had but sleep was sleep and she was grateful for it – she hadn’t been sleeping very well recently and hadn’t realised how exhausted she was until she had lay down on the bed.

 

She woke more exhausted and groggy than she had been before she had been before her head and hit the pillow but rolled over anyway, grabbing her phone off charge to check the time. She winced at the glare from her phone screen as she read that it was a little after half eight. 

 

She considered falling back asleep but quickly decided that she wasn’t going to be the one person who slept through the new year celebrations. She rolled out of bed, making sure that her flannel and skin-tight skinny jeans weren’t too creased from her nap and then contemplated what she was going to do next; she could always ring her friend ruby and accept the invite to go clubbing that had been extended to Emma at 3am that morning, or she could turn to the party going on three apartments down that she had been invited to the week before but the thought of being leached on by the boys in  there who she just knew had been staring at her ass when she walked ahead of them on the stairs made her skin crawl.

 

In the end, she decided on the plan that she had thought about before her nap – she’d pull her hair back and her trainers on and head down to the quiet bar with the pretty brunette – Regina, Emma was certain her name was – and would sit and drink on her own until the New Year rang in.

 

Emma grabbed her phone and her wallet, stuffing them into her pocket before picking up her keys from the spot on the floor they had landed on when she had thrown them on the ground on her way to bed earlier. Finally, Emma grabbed her jacket, pulling it on as she let herself out of the apartment and walking to the bar.

 

Emma entered and observed the bar. Inside was as quiet as Emma expected; everyone she knew were either clubbing or having house parties or were still out of the city with their families. The only people in the bar was the drunk who was in there every other time Emma had walked into the bar, a group of people who appeared to be spending their New Year's Eve cos playing the How I Met Your Mother gang sitting in a booth at the back of the bar, a few guys playing pool and, a few stools way from the drunk, a guy her age who looked like he'd fallen straight out the dreams of a hundred thousand women. Emma had to admit that he was a very handsome man - she was gay. Not blind. 

 

Emma noted there were no bar tender and so she sat at the opposite end of the bar to wait for someone to appear, sitting with her back against the wall and her feet resting on the stool beside her, she sat side-on to the bar and began watching the game of pool that was going on in the corner. She became engrossed in the game, debating whether these guys were worth hustling later in the night. Emma was so focused on the flashes of colour as the balls bounced off the edges off the table and against the lips of the pockets that she didn’t notice the brunette that Emma had wanted to see had walked up behind the bar from the cellar.

 

Emma only realised that the brunette was there when she felt a warm breath tickle her ear.

 

‘You’re back soon.’

‘Uh huh.’ Emma replied as she span to face the bar and the gorgeous brunette on the other side of it. Emma was going to make a remark about how two days aren’t really that soon but as she turned she saw the brunette leaning across the bar, her head resting on her hand and Emma forgot how to speak.

 

‘Your usual?’

Emma nodded. ‘Please’ she replied, her voice soft and catching.

 

The bartender stood up and poured Emma her usual honey whiskey over ice, sliding it over to the blonde before returning to propping her head up with her hand on the bar, watching Emma who span the glass ever so slightly on the top of the desk.

 

‘Hard day?’ the brunette asked gently, sincerely, as she watched Emma rub the side of her face.

 

‘Kinda. But I won’t bore you. How’s your day been?’

 

‘Can’t you tell? It’s absolutely heaving in here. Been rushed off my feet.’ Regina said with a smirk and a roll of her eyes.

 

Emma hummed to herself.

 

‘What?’ Regina asked, with an arched eyebrow.

 

‘Sarcasm suits you.’ Emma mused.

 

‘I know.’ Regina quipped.

 

‘Reginaaaaa’ The handsome, mopey guy at the other end of the bar whined.

 

Emma smiled at the fact that she had remembered the brunettes name correctly.

 

Regina rolled her eyes and grimaced, causing Emma to choke on a laugh.

 

‘Grahammm’ Regina replied, in the exact tone of whinging that the man had used, without turning to face him.

 

‘Stop flirting with blondie and get me a drink please.’

 

‘Don’t you think you’ve had enough?’ Regina asked as she turned to face him.

 

‘One more? Please’ he whined.

 

‘One. And then you’re gone.’ Regina replied.

 

Graham nodded and accepted the bottle of beer that Regina had slid along the bar to him before she turned back and began talking to Emma again.

 

‘Ignore graham. He thinks he’s the top of the top because he looks nice and then he’ll lose his keys or miss the subway or spill a drink or he walks in on his now ex-girlfriend was fucking his brother and he comes in here and gets all maudlin on beer. Fucking lightweight.’  Regina muttered as she placed her head on her hand once more.

 

Emma actually felt herself go red with laughter.

 

‘two questions.’ Emma stated, taking a sip from her drink.

 

‘Go on.’

 

‘How did you manage to say that he’ll lose his keys and walk in on his girl fucking his brother as if they were equal importance?’ Emma said with a smile.

 

‘Oh no, they aren’t equal. He was more depressed about the keys.’ She watched as Emma laughed and felt herself getting warm at the fact that she had managed to make this blonde who she had been admiring secretly for weeks now laugh. Emma’s laugh was soft and genuine. ‘So, what was your second question?’ Regina asked once Emma’s laughter had stopped.

 

‘Was that really you flirting?’

 

‘Oh, God no.’ Regina said before moving ever so slightly closer and lowering her voice.  ‘If I was flirting with you, you’d know.’

 

‘Is that right?’ Emma asked, leaning into the bar, moving closer to Regina before mirroring the brunette and sitting with her head on her hand.

 

‘Indeed.’ Regina practically whispered.

 

Emma was trying to think of a reply or at least remember to shut her mouth and not drool when a shadow of someone leaning over them.

 

‘R-Right then, ladies. Imma love you and leave yous’ Graham said as he swayed.

 

‘Do you need me to walk you out, Graham?’

 

‘No, no. I’m all good Gi. I’ll see you soon.’

 

‘I hope not.’ Regina whispered, just barely loud enough for Emma to hear.

 

The two women watched as the man stumbled out the bar.

The two women spoke until the bar emptied a little after eleven.

 

The drunk, who Emma had been told was called Leroy, had been pulled into a taxi by Regina when he fell asleep on top of the bar and knocked his beer over. The How I Met Your Mother cos players had joined up with the lads who had been playing pool and they had all gone out the party of a friend of a friend of a friend.

 

Which left Emma. And Regina.

 

Over the course of the few hours they had spent together it had become glaringly obvious that Emma wanted to kiss Regina and Regina wanted to kiss Emma.

 

In actuality they wanted to date each other and hold hands with each other and be there to be more than just a friendly ear over the bar for each other.

 

But Emma had decided that she’d kiss Regina at midnight and see where everything goes from there.

 

She was pulled from her day dream about whether Regina’s lips would feel as soft as they look when the brunette jumped over the bar and walked towards the door.

 

Emma was about to ask what Regina was doing when the brunette bolted the front door before returning to the bar. However, instead of jumping back over the bar, Regina sat on the stool next to Emma.

 

‘How was Christmas?’ Regina asked, knowing for a fact it couldn’t have been brilliant seeing as Emma had spent most of it in the same seat she was in now.

 

‘Kind of awful till I got here and spent it drinking in good company.’

 

‘As opposed to what?’  
  
‘Drinking alone.’ Emma admitted.

 

‘Ah well, we can’t have that now, can we?’

 

‘Nope.’ Emma said, popping the p. ‘How about you? Did good ol’ Santa bring you everything you wanted?’

 

Regina shook her head.

 

‘No? Why? What’d you ask for that Santa couldn’t bring you?’ Emma asked teasingly.

 

Regina met Emma’s eyes with an honesty, and intensity, in her own that Emma hadn’t seen before.

 

‘You.’

 

Emma sat frozen for half a second, shocked still at Regina’s openness before moving closer and closing the gap between herself and the brunette. Regina’s lips were soft and plump between Emma’s own. Emma could taste apple cider and almond lip gloss. She felt a hand on her hip and another delicately cupping her cheek and found one of her own hands wrapping around Regina’s waist as her other hand tangled itself in Regina’s hair, gently massaging the brunette’s scalp eliciting a soft moan from the brunette.

 

Years later, when Emma told the story of their New Year’s Kiss in her speech as she looked at the grinning brunette beside her in a white dress with a gold band on her ring finger, she swore the fireworks were inside her own head and not filling the New York skies as the clock struck twelve and her mouth met Regina’s for the first time of many.

**Author's Note:**

> I know I've been away for a while (okay. a day short of exactly a month.) 
> 
> I want to say I've been busy because it feels like it but I have nothing to show for anything. I have spent the month procrastinating everything from writing to college to getting my hair cut (which I was meant to do before Christmas break started and only got done this morning)
> 
> I hope that you're all good and that you like this.
> 
> As always, all comments and kudos are appreciated so much.
> 
> Also...... prompts! prompts are massively appreciated and will be put into my list of things to write. Annnd, just so you all know, ones where our dynamic duo are happy will hit the top of the list because I'm currently working on a couple with not-so-happily ever afters (and one super sweet one that expands on the domesticity of 'Phonecall') 
> 
>  
> 
> Wishing you all a Happy New Year!


End file.
